Tuesday, June 21. 2011

"Japan's stock investment community is buzzing with rumors about the Bank of Japan's '1% rule.' These rumors suggest that the BOJ has been following a single guideline in its purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under a new, unorthodox program it launched last Dec. 15. The rule is that whenever the Topix index of all issues on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange ends a morning session 1% or lower than the previous day's close, the central bank will try to prop up the stock market by purchasing ETFs in the afternoon session. The BOJ official in charge of such matters has refused to comment on the criteria the bank uses for its ETF purchases. But the numbers appear to confirm the chatter emerging from the rumor mill. Since Dec. 15, the BOJ has purchased ETFs through trust banks on all of the 18 days when the Topix index fell by 1% or more in the morning session."

... But what happens when the "Shirakawa Put" expires?

But the program is set to expire in June 2012. And the BOJ has already used one-third of the 900 billion yen it had set aside for this purpose.

With the stock market currently on shaky ground, the BOJ may have to consider extending and expanding the program. But it cannot continue this untraditional scheme for long.

Sooner or later, the stock market will find itself without the central bank's policy support. When this happens, the fortunes of the market will depend solely on the nation's growth outlook.

Take the last sentence and then apply it to every single stock market in the developed economy in the world, which is by rough estimates, about 50% overvalued, and is thus nothing short of a government mandated Ponzi system, which is only legal because its unwind would expose modern capitalist society as one based on the biggest economic fallacy of all time.

Tuesday, March 15. 2011

... in this time of devastation and uncertainty, Japan has shown it runs well on many levels in spite of its government. This is a moment for sorrow and reflection, yes. It's also a time to look ahead to brighter days. They could indeed be on the way.

Tuesday, May 6. 2008

Foreign aid workers in Burma have concluded that as many as 50,000 people died in Saturday’s cyclone, and two to three million are homeless, in a disaster on a scale comparable with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The official death count after Cyclone Nargis stood at just under half that by 1300 GMT today, at around 22,500 people dead plus a further 41,000 missing.

But due to the incompleteness of the information from the stricken delta of the Irrawaddy river, UN and charity workers in the city of Rangoon privately believe that the number will eventually be double that.

"We are looking at 50,000 dead and millions homeless," Andrew Kirkwood, country director of the British charity Save The Children, told The Times.
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"I’d characterise it as unprecedented in the history of Myanmar and on an order of magnitude with the effect of the tsunami on individual countries. It might well be more dead than the tsunami caused in Sri Lanka."

Monday, November 5. 2007

General Musharraf has declared martial law in Pakistan. Chuck Prince is being pressed to resign as chief executive of Citigroup, the world’s largest bank, apparently because of losses on sub-prime mortgages. The oil price has risen to $96 a barrel; the gold price has risen above $800 an ounce. That is the world in a nutshell, an international crisis, a credit crisis, an energy crisis and a dollar crisis.

Saturday, May 12. 2007

Clashes between rival parties killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens as Pakistan's political crisis descended into violence ahead of planned protests over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the chief justice.

In some of the bloodiest fighting, pro-government and opposition activists armed with assault rifles traded fire with assault rifles about half a mile from Karachi's international airport. A witness said three people traveling in a car were killed and a passer-by was wounded.

Karachi police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment to the media, said at least 11 people had died in violence across the city, and more than 70 were wounded. A senior government official reported that 10 to 12 people had died.

Friday, October 20. 2006

Tuesday, September 19. 2006

Thailand's army commmander ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a military coup Tuesday night while the prime minister was in New York, circling his offices with tanks, declaring martial law and revoking the constitution.